I'm eating dirt again. It tastes like sand and earth with the faintest hint of citrus.

Oranges. Like Ili.

I push up on my hands, smiling. I can taste my mate. I'm covered in my own piss, so I must have been out for a few hours at least, but our bond is still thrumming strongly in the back of my throat.

My wolf shivers. He can feel it, too, but when he circles, sniffing the air, searching for the hint of oranges in the air, Ili is nowhere to be found. Dejected, he slumps back down.

Heaving myself off of the ground isn't easy. My head swims dizzyingly when I'm on my knees and I can't stand for another minute.

A groan, then a hacking cough, followed by the sound of that fucker vomiting, greets my ears. I breathe deeply, quelling my own urge to toss my cookies. I've already urinated all over myself, but I'm naked, so it's mostly dried.

It starts to rain. Just a drizzle. I tilt my face up to the sky and let it wash me clean. I even open my mouth and let the cool water hit my tongue until I'm shivering from the cold.

Feeling marginally better, I stumble back to the cave. It reeks of piss and vomit. Sean isn't faring too well. I don't give a shit if my Mark on Ili's shoulder is making him sick, but Conner's words hover in the back of my mind. If he dies, it will cause even more damage to her.

A smidgen of guilt crosses my mind. Another shudder wracks my body, head to toe. I'm trapped in here. The fence is still on, and Ili is out there somewhere.

Another hacking cough comes from Sean's bed.

"Yo. Asswipe," I snap at him. "Get up and get out. You stink."

Sean rolls over and vomits again. The greenish-yellow bile is in his hair and all over the mattress. He shivers, his teeth chattering like he's fevered, but he's drenched in sweat.

The faint scent of oranges drifts from him and attacks my senses like a raging bull. My wolf sees red. Fury scalds my tongue, bitter and foul, making my stomach queasy. Sean, the fucker, smells like Ili because he fucked my mate.

Mine. Not his. She can't be his. My head is pounding unmercifully, but I can think clearly enough to put the pieces together. Sean is in love with Georgina when Ili is his truemate. Ili must have rejected him and it made her wolf weaker and sick. Then I left and the fucker took the opportunity to pounce on Ili and use her heat against her.

Snarling, teeth bared, I reach down with furry hands tipped with claws to force Sean outside. Grasping his arm, I yank him from the vomit-soaked mattress onto the floor. He groans but doesn't uncurl himself from the fetal position. I look around as I drag him toward the entrance. There's no plumbing inside the cave. There must be a well outside. They wouldn't leave us here without some sort of water.

There is a well. It's just a hole with a bucket on a string. I dump Sean next to it and stalk back into the cave for the mattress. Heaving it upright, I shove it outside. The rain is falling steadier now, darkening the blue cover almost immediately. Sean is curled into a tight ball, yaking with nothing in his stomach.

I look for soap but find nothing. Growling, I stomp over to the well with ill grace and pull up a bucket, tossing it onto Sean. He groans miserably but still doesn't move.

"Why do you have to stink of my female?" I spit at his prone body. He doesn't answer, just keeps shivering pathetically. I pour two more buckets over him before he finally cracks his eyes open. "Stop," he rasps. "Too cold."

"So?" I sneer.

"Ili was c-cold," he mumbles. "Always so f-fucking cold."

"Yeah?" I remember. "Always so fucking cold, huh? You'd better be talking about her attitude, because she may be cold now and where the fuck am I? Here with you, you fucker." I slam the bucket down and go back to the cave. Standing in the entrance, I watch Sean try to roll over, then stand. He can't. Too weak I guess. He ends up crawling, making it halfway to the entrance before he has to stop to dry heave into the mud.

"Fuck," I snarl. My wolf paces, flashes fang towards the asswipe. We have to bring him inside. What if he gets sicker and Ili suffers for it? It's probably our fault he's in such agony, anyway. We Marked his mate.

I stalk back over to him, the rain coming down in sheets. Lightning streaks through the sky, followed by the boom of thunder moments later. Grabbing Sean's arm again, I half-drag him back into the cave.

We have two blankets and one mattress. The well is outside, but there's nothing to drink from and no food that I can see or smell. The enclosure outside is only about a hundred feet across and fifty feet from the entrance of the cave. The cave itself is fairly large. It's bigger than my bedroom at home. There's no light. No electricity other than the stunning kind humming through the fence. As the sky darkens, the cave is thrown into dark shadows.

For the first time since waking up here, uneasiness eclipses my rage. We have no easy escape and no food. Our supplies are meager at best. If no one comes to bring us what we need what do we do? Fucking eat each other? I'd kill Sean now, but Conner said that would hurt Ili. Sean coughs, wheezing helplessly, shivering and quaking. He wipes his nose on the back of his arm, then lets it fall to the ground with a heavy thud. Even that effort cost him.

I go back outside and grab the bucket, filling it again. I have to unknot the rope, but the wet knot won't come undone, so I end up slicing through the rope with my claws. I won't be able to retie it until the rain stops and the rope is dry enough to secure. That means that Sean and I have one bucket of water between the two of us until the rain stops. Vomiting causes dehydration, so Sean needs to drink now, even if he throws most of it back up.

"Drink," I snap at him, wrenching his head up by grabbing a fistful of his hair. With my other hand, I scoop up a small mouthful of water from the bucket.

He curls his lip at me, but it's a wholly pathetic threat from such a sick male. He drinks the one swallow from my cupped hand before his eyes flutter shut.

I let him curl up on the hard stone ground. All the sympathy in my soul for Sean is burned out. I have just enough left to toss one of the blankets on him. I'm fucking exhausted, too. Curling up on my clean mattress, I wrap my blanket around me and fall asleep, ignoring Sean's quivering form.

---

My sweet baby suffered this shit, didn't she? It burns my soul. The feeling of that dickhead's Mark on my daisy's soft skin has set my entire being on fire. My wolf screamed for an eternity before he finally fell silent, wracked with the sickness that has invaded our shared body.

It's taking all our strength to drag ourselves to a drier part of the cave. We can't get sick. We have to recover from this or Ili will be hurt.

I can't remember why she'll be hurt. It's bad, though. Fuck. What is it?

Nausea wells up again, cramping my stomach. Snarling silently, I start to drag my body back toward the rain. My gut is aching and I through all the pain I can feel the telltale signs of an impending explosion from my ass.

"The fuck are you doing?" Braxton's sleepy voice growls out of the dark.

"Shit," I grunt. On cue, my stomach grumbles in warning.

"Fuck," he curses softly. "Don't blow your load in here," he warns.

I don't bother to answer. Tossing chunks on my mattress was bad enough. It's probably toast. Even if the stink of vomit is washed away by the rain, it'll never dry out enough to keep mold away. I don't mind sleeping in the dirt, but I'm not shitting myself in front of dickhead.

I don't remember how I got here. I don't remember much after the cabin. Goddess, one moment I was buried in my female, the next I was being dragged around by Braxton as my body tried to turn inside out.

I manage to reach the cave entrance. A cave? Blearily, I look around as much as I can in the dark. Right in front of me, next to the entrance, are markings. Slashes from a wolf's claws, marking the days.

Fucking hell, I know this place. Conner and I used to camp here when we would go on long hunts on paws. The marks are our kills.

Blinking water out of my eyes, I peer through the rainstorm, looking for a good spot to be miserable for the next half-hour. I know the land slopes down more to my right so I crawl out in that direction. A little distance away from the cave entrance, a cramp hits my gut hard enough to make me sag to the ground, groaning.

I unleash brown hell, sobbing into the mud at the combined feelings of relief, embarrassment, and abdominal pain.

I roll away from my mess until I feel like I'm covered in mud instead of feces. When I crawl back to the cave, I'm shaking, head bowed so low I can barely see where I'm going. When I reach the cave I stand if only to let the rain wash away the mud liberally coating my skin.

"Done?" Braxton snickers as I enter.

"Shut it, Brat," I reply hoarsely.

He's quiet for a minute as I crawl back under my blanket. "Hey, remember when you and Georgie-Porgie used to call me that when we were pups?" he says. His voice is mocking and oily with an undercurrent that makes the fur on the back of my exhausted, furious wolf stand up.

"Don't," I rasp.

"What did you two nasty fuckers call Ili? Little Loser-"

"Don't!" I manage to shout. "She doesn't like that name."

Braxton is quiet for a beat before his bewildered, angry voice cuts through the darkness. "No shit she didn't like it. By 'she' I fucking hope you mean Ili and not your whore."

"You know," I realize out loud. "You know Ili is my-"

"She's not your mate," he seethes. I hear him rise from his spot in the cave. "She's mine. I Marked her and it's still on her. I can fucking feel her in here," he pounds his chest.

"So can I," I croak. Ili is the only thing keeping my wolf at bay. Otherwise, he would find a way to end us both. If he had the strength he would attack Braxton right now. I never knew he felt this way.

"No," Braxton snaps, "you can't."

"I can," I mutter, but I'm not sure he understood me. My teeth are chattering so hard I'm afraid it'll de-fang me. Fuck, what is this? Is this a rejection? But my wolf seems so fucking confident that Ili is still his, still connected. Hell, he's more alert than normal, that's for fucking sure.

Shit.

I don't have my drugs here. Of course, I don't. This isn't just from Brat's Mark on my daisy. I'm in fucking withdrawal.

With a whimper, I force my eyes closed, uncertain about what I'll face in the morning.

---

It only took mom another five days to set her revenge in motion.

I stare at the ice in a dull shock. My stomach doesn't feel perfect and I'm back to feeling cold all the time. Staring at the unforgiving, unrelenting ice isn't making me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

The Zamboni has already run, making the surface of the rink a perfectly smooth white-blue. The perfect surface to skate.

I take a deep breath. How, oh how did I end up here today?

A skating rink. I can still smell the sweat from the local hockey team that finished their morning practice an hour ago. Banners are hung from every rafter high above the surface of the ice boasting the accolades of both hockey and figure skating.

Figure skating. I can't. I quit when Sean rejected me. I lost this part of me forever. I have a new plan! Train, swim, run, graduate summer classes at the top. Become Bailey's alpha female because she deserves better than Georgina. Granted, my training is slow as anything because of my continued weakness, but when did skating come back into this?

"Mom..." Shaking my head, I try to think of how to explain this to her. When she doesn't respond I turn around only to see that she's gone and a tall, handsome male is strolling my way.

"Ili?" he smiles, showing his professionally-whitened, perfect teeth. He needs that smile. He's a skater.

"Hey, Will," I smile back at the human boy. Male skaters are pretty rare, and Will is a good one. Before I quit he was skating pairs, not individual. I haven't seen him in a couple of years. Last I heard he was partnering with Samantha Picket. They are a few years older than me, so I didn't ever really hang out with Will on the circuit, but I always heard he was a nice guy, hardworking, and serious about his skating.

"I just wanted to thank you, Ili, for giving me this chance," he blushes a little, looking down at his feet. He misses the frown of confusion that crosses my face. I open my mouth to ask him what he means when Mom reappears.

"There you two are!" she bustles over with a determined look in her eyes. Crap, I can tell that I am not going to like this. My heart is beating a little too hard and my she-wolf is trying to hide under her paws.

"I was just talking to Justine about the routines you can try together today," Mom says enthusiastically.

My heart plummets to my feet. I look at Will. Routines? My mom and Will's mom? Oh, goddess. I can't.

He smiles back at me. "I know you've been really sick, Ili, and it sucks that you can't skate individual anymore, but I have to admit that this is the break that I've been hoping for. Sam's injury really hit us at the worst time with points being racked up and all."

"Well," Mom interjects, "with Samantha out of competition viability for the next year, Ili and I thought that she could try dance!" She smiles at Will and pats his back as he grins eagerly back at her.

All of the pieces suddenly slam together into my mind. Ice dance. Will has moved into ice dancing from skating pairs and since Samantha is apparently 'out of competition viability' mom went ahead and set me up to take her place.

Ice dance duos have to accumulate points to make the Olympic trials. The Olympics are in three years and if Samantha needs a year to recover from her injury, then any points Will racks up in her absence can be transferred to the two of them as long as they are together again a minimum of one year before the trials begin. Ice-freakin'-dancing. I am going to kill my mother and go to jail.

"Mom!" I hiss at her. My fingers twitch. I can't believe she would do this! Granted, if I wanted to skate, ice dance would be the obvious choice. Sadly, at my age, my individual competition days are severely numbered. I've missed a year-and-a-half of peak time. Ice dance, like pairs, is for the older crowd because the male needs to be able to lift and hold the female. Pairs is still out of the realm of possibility for me because of my weak body. I could never get back in good enough shape for pairs, but ice dance is possible. If I wanted to skate again...

I look at the perfect blue ice and sigh softly. My she-wolf looks at the ice with longing. It's always enthralled us. It's as close to flying as we can get

I sneak a glance at Will's broad smile and hopeful eyes. Maybe I can give it this one try. After all, Will and I may not be compatible at all on the ice and it's only for this season. I can still train, especially because I swore off males. That saves me time, right?

"OK. I'll try," I mumble. Mom beams, her smile not faltering at all when I cast a quick glare in her direction. I swallow heavily. I don't know if I can do this.

"Great!" Will takes my hand in his and pulls me along. My shivering has slowed down as adrenaline starts to pump through my veins. Will shows me a pair of skates that are the perfect size and slightly broken in. I don't question how he got them. Mom and I are the same size and they smell of her. She must have been wearing them all week, hobbling along on ice skates, to help me.

With tears heavy in the back of my throat, I lace up. It feels so familiar. Pulling the laces through the eyelets, tightening one cross-weave at a time. When I'm satisfied, I slide my hands into the gloves Will hands me.

"OK. Slow, right?"

"It's dance, Ili," Will says quietly. "You can just relax and let it flow."

We step onto the ice and my she-wolf whines, looking out at the rink with hearts in her eyes. She dreams of hunting on the ice. Maybe one day we can travel to Alaska.

One skate goes, then the other, my body falling into the rhythm as if I never left. It's just a simple skate, though. Nothing special.

Music starts to play. Ice dance can be just about any sort of ballroom music, but a waltz is a popular choice.

Will gently takes my hand in his. His other hand rests on my waist. My she-wolf eyes his hand warily, but then Will pulls me into a turn. It's slow, easy, and I relax into his lead.

We move around the rink together. Sometimes I feel as slow as molasses, my arms, and hands heavy as I follow Will's movements, but the ice... it's still like flying. As I glide I feel like I'm in control of my body for the first time in a very long while. Goddess, it feels so good, but I'm so weak, my heart is racing and my breath is heavy after just a couple of minutes.

We come to a stop near the middle, my eyes closed, tears leaking free.

"Ili?" Will wipes my tears.

"Sorry," I whisper, without opening my eyes. "I guess it's been too long."

"Are you kidding?" he says softly. "You were... so amazing, Ili. It's like you were meant to do this."

I open my eyes. He smiles easily at me, but his eyes are worried. "Truly," he says quietly. "I've skated with sixteen other women in the last month. No one got it like you, Ili."

I frown. "Really?"

"You were always so elegant, but now... it's like you were feeling that piece right in your soul."

I lick my lips, swallowing hard. "Let's do another one? Just in case that was a fluke."

Will smiles easily at me. "Sure."